Venom 3: Negativity
by OptimusPhillip
Summary: Anti-Venom discovers the truth about the origins of his costume from a visit by the creator; a man from the Negative Zone, and going to the Negative Zone himself. Meanwhile, Sgt. Eugene 'Flash' Thompson regains his lost legs with the original suit and fights the deranged offspring of Carnage: Toxin. Rated: T for violence
1. Chapter 1

Felicia Hardy-Thompson was almost finished decorating her house for her husband's "Welcome Home!" party when her friends Peter and Mary Jane Parker showed up.

"You're here early." said Felicia.

"We wanted to be able to say we were the first ones here." said Peter.

"You sure are a kidder, Peter, just like your cousin."

"Yeah, you'd be surprised at how similar we were." Suddenly a wailing noise was heard from another room.

"Excuse me." said Felicia before leaving the room, "I'm coming Felicity!"

"This is going to be the first time you've seen Flash since high school." said MJ.

"Yeah." said Peter, "I knew he was a good strategist, from how good he was on the basketball court, and that he was strong, from all those beatings, but for some reason I never pictured him as a soldier. Once I heard he enlisted, though, I knew he'd do great."

Later that evening, everyone attending the party waited anxiously for Flash to return. Not long after he did, but Felicia and the guests were shocked by what they saw: Sgt. Eugene Thompson was rolled out by Gen. Arnie Roth in a wheelchair with nothing from the knees down.

"What happened, Flash?" said Felicia.

"Grenades." said Flash, "Between the burn marks and the lacerations, there was no other option."

"That's unfortunate." said Peter.

"Yeah."

"You know," said Eddie Brock, who was also in attendance, "It just so happens that certain genetic engineers have recently altered a certain alien life form to no longer be parasitic and it might just be your ticket to walking on human legs again."

"Are you sure that they'll allow it?" said Eugene.

"Well since it's part of Project: Rebirth 2.0, I'd say it's allowed."

"Great. I'll volunteer ASAP."

Meanwhile over at Carnage's prison, the guards noticed the symbiote's strange behavior and called in a medical examiner.

"I've never seen anything like this." said the doctor, "It appears that some sort of reproductive process is happening."

"You're saying it's pregnant?" said police captain Pat Mulligan.

"Essentially, yes."

"Meaning there will be another one of those?"

"Yes, but chances are that, provided it's kept in the right environment, it won't be hostile." However the examiner's assurance was in vain, for the new symbiote, once separated from Carnage, immediately broke out of the cell by dissolving the wall. Once out it possessed the strongest person in the vicinity to be its host; Mulligan.


	2. Chapter 2

"So this is your new workplace?" said Peter as he entered the soup kitchen wherein Eddie worked.

"Yeah," said Brock, "part of my never-ending quest to make up for the sins I committed with the suit."

"Oh and speaking of suits, have you figured out where the new one came from yet?"

"'Fraid not."

"What are you guys talking about?" said a man from behind the counter.

"Nothing much, Mr. Li." said Eddie.

"Then you can get back to work, and maybe your friend can help."

"Would you mind?" said Brock.

"Not at all," said Peter, "I am capable, so I'm morally obliged to do so."

"Oh, I should probably warn you, Mr. Li's mindset isn't exactly desirable."

"What do you mean?"

"Watch. Mr. Li, did you hear about that thing with the Carnage symbiote?"

"Yeah." said Li.

"What do you think about it?" said Eddie

"I think we're all doomed."

"See, Peter."  
"You really should be a bit more optimistic, Mr. Li." said Peter.

"I can't help it," said Li, "that's just the way I am."

"Whatever you say, Mr. Li."

"Sergeant Thompson," said Steve Rogers, head of Project: Rebirth 2.0, "in just a few minutes you will be exposed to an alien life form that will not only regenerate your legs, but will also increase your strength, speed, agility, and stamina, as well as give you superpowers like those of Spider-Man. Are you prepared for that much power?"

"I am, sir." said Flash.

"Good. The bonding will begin now." Steve opened the lid on the jar containing the newly genetically altered symbiote. Once out, the symbiote noticed the legless man, and instantly pitied him. Acting on impulse, it bonded itself to him. The costume coated itself over his body and shaped a fair portion of itself into legs. The final product, however, would not be instantly recognized as Venom. The suit looked more like a black-ops uniform than anything else. The mask covered his entire face with the exception of his eyes and mouth, and the costume was a full body suit with ammo belts criss-crossing over his chest, connected to the guns on his hips, which resembled M4-Carbines. When he tried them out, however, they fired web balls instead of the standard .223 caliber bullets.

"Now," said Rogers, "for your first assignment. There is another symbiotic union on the loose. Based upon information provided by Venom it is mentally unstable to the point where the host has no control over the symbiote. Your mission is to take it down."

"Roger that, Rogers." said Flash before swinging off.


	3. Chapter 3

Peter and Eddie were just cleaning up from doing a little work at the soup kitchen when Peter brought something up.

"Have you figured out the origin of the suit yet?" he said.

"No." said Eddie, "The suit doesn't even know where it came from."

"What are you talking about?" said Mr. Li.

"Nothing, Mr. Li." said Brock.

"What's this about suits?"

"Nothing." repeated Eddie.

"I know exactly what you're talking about," said Li, "and I can help you."

"What do you mean?" said Peter.

"Remember when I said my negativity was just the way I was?" said Li

"Yeah, so?" said Brock. Mr. Li went into the back room, with Peter and Eddie reluctantly following. When they arrived they saw that this was apparently Mr. Li's place of residence, for there was a small cupboard, oven, microwave, bureau, and bed. Li moved the bureau and whispered "Nepo" into the wall1. Peter and Eddie couldn't believe their eyes when the wall opened right in front of them. Mr. Li went inside and gestured for the others to follow. Once inside, Li took off his clothes, along with what was revealed to be a mask, exposing a full-body suit underneath. He went into a dark corner and moved as though he was taking something off and putting something else on. When he emerged, Peter and Eddie were shocked, for Mr. Li looked like himself, but he looked like he would if a photographer still used negatives

"Mr. Li?" said Brock.

"Ma yllaer I tahw si siht." said Li, "Kool doog a ekat."

"What?" said Peter, prompting Li to put a device in his mouth.

"Sorry." said Mr. Li, "I sometimes forget to put in my negative-to-positive translator. I said take a good look. This is what I really am."  
"What are you?" said Brock.

"I'm human," said Li, "I'm just not a normal human by your standards. I'm from the Negative Zone of the universe."

"I've heard about that." said Peter, "I read a paper once that said that scientists believe that there is a sector of the universe wherein everything is comprised of antimatter, and that the only thing preventing an explosion at the boundary is a sort of Neutral Zone, where no particle has a charge, positive or negative, but seeing an actual antimatter life form, it's remarkable." Peter reached out to touch Li, but he pulled away.

"What were you thinking?" said Li.

"Right," said Peter, "if antiparticles come into contact with particles-"

"Both will be annihilated." said Li.

"Yep."

"With that aside, I need your help, we need your help. Both of you need to help us, or the Negative Zone will be destroyed."

1 If you see words spelled backwards, it means that the character is speaking in a rewound style, it is not necessarily a phonetic spelling


	4. Chapter 4

"Why do you need us to save the Negative Zone?" said Eddie.

"You know how the universe is expanding and will eventually start contracting and crush itself?" said Li.

"Yeah." said Peter.

"Well, somehow the Negative Zone has been accelerated in that process." said Li, "Based on the current contraction rate I'd say that the Negative Zone will end in..." he pulled out a calculator and punched in some numbers, "a week, maybe longer."

"But why do you need us to do this?" said Eddie.

"Because you share a psychic link with one another, which is essential." said Li.

"But why do you need that?" said Peter.

"Traditional communication is too risky," said Li, "it could get jammed or the communicators could be stolen."

"You guys sure are pessimistic."

"Well excuse us for being Negative."

"Hey, I'm the one who crack the jokes here."

"Yes, whatever. The point is we need you to stop whoever's doing this."

"We'll do it," said Brock, "we promise."

Agent Venom squatted upon one of the eagles on the Chrysler Building , watching for his new quarry, the new symbiote Toxin. Peering through symbiote binoculars, it didn't take long for him to spot a figure in the darkness, clad in a violet-red and black Spider-Man-esque costume. He jumped down from the bust and landed on another rooftop, continuing the pattern until he was able to silently get behind the man.

"Freeze!" he said as he aimed a web gun at him, "Are you Patrick Mulligan?"

"Yes," said the man, "I was once Patrick Mulligan."

"I'm Agent Eugene Thompson of S.H.I.E.L.D., we do not wish to do any harm, to you or to innocents, we want to help you, Captain Mulligan."

"There is no more Patrick Mulligan, there is only Toxin." He started to walk away, but Venom shot a web net over him.

"Please," said Flash, "that symbiote is unstable, we can't have you on the loose. We need to help you before you hurt yourself or anyone else." However Toxin was starting to grow furious, and Venom was going to learn the hard way what happens when it gets angry. Toxin's muscles started to grow larger, and the web pattern began to distort, and he grew metal shackles on his wrists instead of web shooters. Eventually Toxin's strength became evident, for he broke free of the web as though it were paper. The final result was a monster bearing a strong resemblance to the original Venom, but in the dark violet-red and black color scheme of the smaller Toxin. Flash's troops rapid-fired at him, but the bullets simply bounced off. Toxin retaliated by yanking them towards him with chains he fired from the shackles on his wrists. He grabbed one of them and raised his hand, now in the shape of an axe, with the intent to kill the soldier, but he was suddenly distracted by a web ball hitting his back. Toxin turned around and saw Agent Venom pointing his smoking web gun at him. Toxin jumped at him, but Flash dodged. Toxin ran at him again, this time faster, but Venom managed to dodge that, too. Toxin made one last strike and was finally able to pin his adversary. Little did Toxin know, however, that this was exactly what Venom wanted: One of the soldiers got up and fired a tranquilizer dart at him.

The first thing to be sedated was the symbiote, as indicated by the fact that the last thing Toxin said before fully passing out was "Help me."


	5. Chapter 5

Toxin woke up in a relatively large prison cell the next day, pinioned with chains. The first thing he saw was Agent Venom standing in front of him.

"It's for your own good, Mulligan." he said.

"Again, there is no more Mulligan, only Toxin." said Toxin.

"That's not what I heard last night after the suit was tranquilized. I heard you say 'help me.' Is that something Toxin would say?" Flash paused, "Sounds more like something the desperate-for-help police captain would say if he was possessed by this-" Venom stopped to think of a word to describe the symbiote without offended it, "thing."

"Stop that. I tell you that Patrick Mulligan is gone. All that remains of us is Toxin."

"Us or me?"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGGHHHHHHHHHH!" Cried Toxin, then the same transformation that happened the night before happened again. Toxin tore straight out of the chains, prompting Flash to pick up his guns and fire, but to no avail, for Toxin had, once again, proven himself too powerful for the web balls to affect him in any way. He tore through the bars, pushed Eugene aside, and broke through the wall of the facility.

Meanwhile in the Neutral Zone, Peter Parker busied himself covering his entire body with a suit of neutral-matter and an antimatter version of his normal costume.

"You know, Eddie," he said as he put his neutral-matter mask on, "this place has a lot more negative stuff to it than I expected. I thought that antimatter just made of opposite charged particles. I guess it also reflects light differently as well."

"That isn't important, Peter." said Brock, "What matters is we need to save this place from whoever wants to destroy it."

"Right." said Peter, "You know what else matters?"

"What?"

"How are you going to enter the Negative Zone? You can't take off your costume and put on a neutral-matter suit then an antimatter suit. That suit is part of you."

"I can fix that." said Li when he came in unexpectedly.

"What do you mean?" said Brock. Li pulled out a cellophane-like body suit and handed it to him.

"It's neutral-matter. Once you put it on, I'll give you the antimatter."

"So instead of changing from a matter suit to an antimatter suit, he puts on a clear plastic antimatter suit over his matter suit?" said Peter as he picked up his neutral matter gloves.

"Yes." said Li, "But there is one more thing I need to do before you put on that glove."

"What's that?"

"Well, the symbiote in your blood needs to be the same symbiote as Eddie's, and it needs to be alive."

"What are you saying?"

"I need to revive the symbiote in your blood and convert it to an extension of Anti-Venom, which means I have to extract it." He pulled out a small needle and put it into Peter's hand. Once it was removed there was a small bit of dried symbiote on the tip. Li put on a relatively thick glove and touched the symbiote, reviving it and turning it white. Mr. Li then injected it straight into Peter's neck, "Now you should be able to maintain a psychic link with Eddie."

"Okay. So when do we start?"

"Just as soon as Brock gets the antimatter suit on," Li said. Anti-Venom then stepped out of the corner, now with inverted colors, "which is now."


	6. Chapter 6

Toxin sat against the wall of a back alley in Brooklyn. He had been sitting there for hours when some crooks ran by.

He stood up and said "Halt."

"And who are you to tell us what to do?" said one of the crooks before turning around and seeing Toxin in full.

"Oh, no one special. Just an ordinary guy with an uncontrollable alien bonded to his skin." He threw saw blades at them, taking two of them down. Two of them pulled out pistols and opened fire at him, but they simply bounced off. They kept firing, and eventually they were able to hurt him. They were excited about finally hurting him, but that excitement quickly turned to remorse when that pain triggered a rage transformation. The monster they unleashed came up to them and grabbed the pistols straight out of their fists. He then crushed the guns in his hand, unperturbed by the multitude of exploding bullets. They tried to run away, but fell down before making it out. They turned their heads and found their ankles in shackles, chained to Toxin's wrists. Toxin yanked them back, grabbing them by their respective throats. He slammed them against the walls and extended a bladed tendril.

However, before he could kill either of them, a voice rang out in the back of his head, saying "Don't kill them, leave them to the police." He dropped them out the ground, with them having passed out from the shock. He then went to make sure the other two were alive. Luckily they were.

"Hold it, Toxin." said a voice from behind him.

"You just won't leave us alone, will you Flash?" said Toxin.

"We over at S.H.I.E.L.D. need you off the streets. You're too dangerous."

"You're right."

"What?"

"The suit is dangerous, and nearly out of my control. I could only barely stop it from killing those guys."

"So, you finally accept this help."

"I've always wanted your help, but the suit was in full control. Now that I'm resisting its control, I accept the help."

"Good. Come with us."

Spider-Man and Anti-Venom stood outside of a large power plant in the Negative Zone.

"Yeah," said Spider-Man, "this is definitely able to generate enough power to destroy a portion of the universe."

"Li said that we need to deactivate both generators as fast as possible." said Anti-Venom, "I'd say that we both need to take out the generators simultaneously."

"Got that. Let's move." They both ran in.


	7. Chapter 7

Once inside, Spider-Man and Anti-Venom split up and headed down different hallways, both allegedly leading to a generator.

Anti-Venom was able to slip through the initial security measures, A simple laser grid through which he was easily able to fit, without hassle. However, there was a slight issue with the cameras: some were motion sensitive and others were domed. His camouflage power could only help him hide so much. He spent a short time deliberating about what he should do, and eventually developed a technique to get through without being obvious in the security footage, and managed to get through to the generator.

Spider-Man was not nearly as lucky as Anti-Venom when it came to evading detection. He didn't actually start a security alert, but he had to knock out more guards than he would've liked to prevent attention from being drawn to himself. Eventually he got to the door to the generator room, but he underestimated the security in that area. His spider-sense was going crazy, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong. Soon it became apparent: the floor was pressure sensitive, and the cameras all scan for authorization when a disturbance is detected. An alarm followed, then he was taken by security drones.

Spider-Man was taken to a large room and placed before a man in a large chair, back to him.

"Ris," said one of the robots, "ew thguac siht nam gnitpmetta ot kaerb otni eht rotareneg moor. Ew eveileb eh dennalp ot tuhs ti nwod."

"Did uoy kcehc eht rehto rotareneg?" said the man.

"Ew detceted gnihton ni eht rehto ratoreneg moor, ris." The man suddenly noticed Spidey's reflection on one of the walls.

"Spider-Man." said the man, "what brings you to the Negative Zone?"

"Let's stop asking the obvious and get the rest cleared up," said Spider-Man, "who are you and why are you doing this?"

"It does not matter who I am, except that I was horribly wronged by the ravages of corporate meddling, and now, my existence is incomplete." The man turned his chair, revealing that underneath his clear plastic suit, he was covered with blotches of inverted colors. Clearly he was not simply a Negative or Positive human.

"What happened to you?" said Spider-Man.

"What happened? Osborn happened."

_(Flashback narrated by Spot)_

I was one of OsCorp's top antimatter researchers years ago. I marveled at the concept of a whole zone of the universe being comprised entirely of antimatter, and sought to prove it. The others didn't take me seriously, but I was passionate about my work. I had actually developed a portal that would allow firsthand experience of what happens in there. But that corporate bastard Norman Osborn thought I was crazy and ordered the project cancelled. Of course, idiotic as ever, they didn't shut it down properly or even give me a chance to exit the portal. The vortex snapped, stranding me in the Neutral Zone.

_(Flashback ends)_

"I came to like this."

"The vortex snapping must've altered the charge of some of your particles. You're both matter and antimatter."

"Only by God's grace did the transmaterial energy from the vortex allow the particles to coexist. But even so, I cannot exist in either zone unprotected without risking annihilation."

"So you plan on squeezing everything out of the Negative and Positive Zones so that you can have some semblance of a normal life."

"Exactly."

"But wait, how are you going to do this? There isn't a power plant in the universe capable of destroying a trillionth of the universe, let alone almost half." Spot gestured towards a large metal ring in the wall with swirling energies in it.  
"The portal." said Spider-Man.

"Yes." said Spot, "the portal is the key. It is what is causing the contraction: it's sucking the Negative Zone in. That's what's causing the contraction."

"But everything you squeeze out of the Negative Zone will still be antimatter. There won't be any difference."

"The transmaterial energy will allow them to coexist as it has done with the atoms in my body."

"Okay. But have you ever considered that some people might not want this?"

"Did Osborn consider that I wanted him to shut down the portal properly if at all? Did he consider that I didn't want to live this incomplete life?"

"You disregard the desires of millions because you were wronged by one from the opposite end of the universe? How does that make sense?"

"I don't care how much sense it makes to you, Spider-Man. All that matters to me is living a normal life. All I want is to not have to wear a special suit just to avoid exploding upon contact with air or earth."

"You know how it feels to have had immoral action taken against you. Do you want that same thing to happen to the people of the Negative Zone?" Spot pondered Spider-Man's statement.

"You know what?" said Spot, "You're kind of right."

"So you get it?" said Spidey, "You need to shut down the portal."

"But I can't."

"What?"

"There's too much power in it. I can't shut it down with that much power, the vortex will snap like it did when Osborn shut it down. And the amount of time it will take to power it down sufficiently is too long. Even with the amount of power decreasing, the suction will still be powerful enough to suck the entire Zone out before shutdown."

"Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

"I'm afraid there's no way to stop it."

"If we cut the power to it-"

"That would be removing too much power too fast."

"What would happen if the vortex did snap?"

"Since the whole Zone is being affected by it, what happened to me might happen to the rest of the Zone, except the transmaterial energy won't affect it."

"Meaning a massive annihilation will occur if we shut it down."

"Exactly."

"What if we put some kind of shield in front of it?"

"Nothing is that large."

"Nothing except for a symbiote." said a voice from the ceiling.

"Anti-Venom?" said Spider-Man.

"You know it." said Anti-Venom as he descended from the ceiling on a web line.

"But the neutral matter, won't it prevent your symbiote from expanding?"

"It's unstable molecules, meaning it can expand to allow me to envelope the portal, but it has a memory of-"

"Less talk, more portal covering." said Spot.

"Right." said Anti-Venom. He expanded his symbiote and wrapped it around the portal.

"Now we can start to power it down, right?" said Spidey.

"Of course, web head." said Spot, "This buys us more than enough time, judging off of Richard Parker's and Edward Brock's research with their symbiote."

"How do you know about Richard Parker and Edward Brock?" said Spider-Man.

"I knew them personally. We talked about our research as much as we could. They were great men. I was so upset to hear about the plane crash." Spot turned a few knobs and pushed some buttons and the power level on the display slowly began to decrease and changed color from a deep red to an orangish red. After a couple hours, the bar was small and green; the indicator that it can be safely shut down. Spot unplugged it from the generators and Anti-Venom removed his symbiote from it.

"Thanks for listening to reason," said Spider-Man, "Mr?"

"Jonathan Ohnn." said Spot, "And thank you for talking some reason into me."

"No problem." said Anti-Venom, "We better get going, Mr. Ohnn."

"See you." said Spot as Spidey and Anti-Venom left the plant.

Agent Venom spent many weeks helping Captain Mulligan gain full control over Toxin. Eventually, after some negative behavioral reinforcement for the symbiote and some anger management treatment for Mulligan, Mulligan was released from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody and allowed to see his wife and newborn son. In addition, Venom got to see firsthand the indicator that Mulligan is putting the symbiote's power to good use: right above a shackled mugger, there was, scratched into the wall, a message.

"Criminals, be wary, for there is a Toxin in the shadows. One so deadly, even the worst evildoer should be afraid."


End file.
